Re: 5 minutes

Whilst you won't be required to actually buy anything from a website/service that is hosting material of the jiggly variety, you could be asked to verify a credit card on-line - much like how certain e-transactions with shopping websites work, e.g. Sainsbury's. Once the details are stored with the card company you can pretty much order as often as you want from the website, without having to re-enter all your card details each time (barring the occasions if you check in/check out multiple times in one day - then they get arsey about it).

While we're about it...

...can we also do away with the release schedule delays between overseas tv shows/films? I know that over recent years it's gotten better, certainly with multinational film releases, but there is a god-awful delay between the release of a tv series in the States and it's subsequent release in the UK.

@Annihilator

This seems to be the direction of travel for the industry. This is not a Nintendo specific example, but there are a lot of shenanigans afoot from the big hitters in the industry around the use of offline/unsupported/abandoned software/hardware. Some salient quotes from the linked article:

"There's no such thing as an obsolete game when you can revive it on any platform at any time. It's digital. From our perspective, there is no merit to the term 'obsolete.' There is no need to allow people to hack or otherwise open up these things or create competing economic enterprises."

"It is not uncommon to improve upon or re-introduce a game at a later time or to iterate upon the software after server support has ended to obtain a return on this valuable investment. Allowing circumvention to enable access to third-party game servers after a video game publisher ends online support harms the market for these new copyrighted works."

This is why there has been such a big move away from physical media for the current gen consoles; it is becoming more common to provide download links/codes for the games when buying a console bundle. Less physical media=greater control of the product for the company.

Re: Diversify!

Re: YAAC Or 3rd option

Matt will now explain how many angels can dance on the head of that particular pin.

Angels simply don't dance. It's one of the distinguishing characteristics that marks an angel. They may listen appreciatively to the Music of the Spheres, but they don't feel the urge to get down and boogie to it.

Amazing really...

With all the hyperbole over the past six months (from both sides of the pond) about how the authorities need to have back door/front door access to encryption, and the more recent comments from the FBI about all those pesky cybercriminals and how the US is on the verge of a massive attack, isn't it just a bit convenient that a large attack of this nature happened?

Can we have a black flag icon please, El Reg? I think it's appropriate under the circumstances.

Hmm? I can hear a strange whum whum whum whum noise in the distance, I wonder what that could be?

Re: Law fail

"Any guesses what they're playing at?"

As MyBackDoor states, Publicity.

My bet is that some senior peeps on both sides have had a quiet discussion beforehand, and arrived at a mutual arrangement whereby Take-Two Interactive will launch the lawsuit, knowing full well that it won't gain any real traction, and then the BBC will cover that as a story ensuring that it gets picked up by other forms of media coverage (*cough* El Reg *cough*), with the the net result being GTA gets continued coverage, keeping it fresh in the minds of the general populace (and who knows, maybe even increasing the sales by a slight margin...), and the BBC basically gets to advertise it's new documentary without having to actually advertise it.

This all seems to smack of the "controversy" around the launch and marketing of the original game. Which I have no problem with, personally; I just found it entertaining in and of itself.

Wait a minute...

Re: Speaking of Pigeons...

Has anyone else, UK-dwelling, noticed that there seem to be almost as many magpies about these days as pigeons?

Yep, this year is the first year that we've had more magpies than pigeons land in the garden during the morning feeding squabble, and they've been particularly aggressive to some off the sparrows and robins as well.

Yes, but...

Here's an Idea...

How about changing the broadcast model instead? You know, if the series is already finished with post-production, just have the entire series available for download/streaming from [input provider of choice here] immediately. Wait a short period afterwards, monitor the volume of actual retention of the entire series (all of those who watched the entire series run, and then possibly re-watched?), then release a limited run of the physical DVD/BRay based on those figures for those who like to collect such things.

Surely by providing what people actually want for a reasonable price, instead of pandering to advertisers wallet padding, would be better in the long run? And would possibly counter the torrent leaks?

Re: Ummmm @ Steve Davies 3

By the way if anyone here is in advertising or marketing… kill yourself.

No, no, no it’s just a little thought. I’m just trying to plant seeds. Maybe one day, they’ll take root – I don’t know. You try, you do what you can. Kill yourself.

Seriously though, if you are, do.

Aaah, no really, there’s no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan’s little helpers. Okay – kill yourself – seriously. You are the ruiner of all things good, seriously. No this is not a joke, you’re going, “there’s going to be a joke coming,” there’s no fucking joke coming. You are Satan’s spawn filling the world with bile and garbage. You are fucked and you are fucking us. Kill yourself. It’s the only way to save your fucking soul, kill yourself.

Planting seeds. I know all the marketing people are going, “he’s doing a joke…” there’s no joke here whatsoever. Suck a tail-pipe, fucking hang yourself, borrow a gun from a Yank friend – I don’t care how you do it. Rid the world of your evil fucking makinations. Machi… Whatever, you know what I mean.

I know what all the marketing people are thinking right now too, “Oh, you know what Bill’s doing, he’s going for that anti-marketing dollar. That’s a good market, he’s very smart.”

Oh man, I am not doing that. You fucking evil scumbags!

“Ooh, you know what Bill’s doing now, he’s going for the righteous indignation dollar. That’s a big dollar. A lot of people are feeling that indignation. We’ve done research – huge market. He’s doing a good thing.”

Godammit, I’m not doing that, you scum-bags! Quit putting a godamm dollar sign on every fucking thing on this planet!

“Ooh, the anger dollar. Huge. Huge in times of recession. Giant market, Bill’s very bright to do that.”

God, I’m just caught in a fucking web.

“Ooh the trapped dollar, big dollar, huge dollar. Good market – look at our research. We see that many people feel trapped. If we play to that and then separate them into the trapped dollar…”

How do you live like that? And I bet you sleep like fucking babies at night, don’t you?

“What didya do today honey?”

“Oh, we made ah, we made ah arsenic a childhood food now, goodnight.” [snores] “Yeah we just said you know is your baby really too loud? You know?” [snores] “Yeah, you know the mums will love it.” [snores]

I wish it hadn't, too...

The committee established that "bulk interception cannot be used to search for and examine the communications of an individual in the UK unless GCHQ first obtains a specific authorisation naming that individual, signed by a Secretary of State".

Unless one of our Special Relationship® partners happens to do the bulk interception/collection on our behalf.

Depending on the forest, this may take anywhere from a century to several millennia. Hardwood forests of the eastern United States can develop old-growth characteristics in one or two generations of trees, or 150–500 years. In British Columbia, Canada, old growth is defined as 120 to 140 years of age in the interior of the province where fire is a frequent and natural occurrence. In British Columbia’s coastal rainforests, old growth is defined as trees more than 250 years, with some trees reaching more than 1,000 years of age. In Australia, eucalypt trees rarely exceed 350 years of age due to frequent fire disturbance.

This reminds me...

"It seems like ergot has been involved with animals and humans almost forever, and now we know that this fungus literally dates back to the earliest evolution of grasses"

I remember watching a film in the late 90's that had a similar theme, almost like a docudrama with a narrator following the exploits of a pre homo sapiens/erectus ape wandering the plains of Africa (the premise being he was the last of his kind), and a particular scene that struck me was when the ape creature consumed a bunch of magic mushrooms; the narration went on to speculate that the consumption of halucinogenics could have been a precursor, trigger or catalyst for the evolution of primate minds, and that this was succesfully passed on to our ancestors and gave the species more of an edge in terms of changing the way an animal's thought processes works. I could never remember the name of the film, as it was one of those late night accidents that happens when changing channels.

I wonder how common it was/is for different species to consume halucinogens (by accident or on purpose), and how this has affected their development.